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A Bishop Saint
Bartolomé Bermejo (Bartolomé de Cárdenas; Spanish, documented 1468–c. 1501)
c. 1480
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 49 × 27.7 cm (19 5/16 × 10 15/16 in.); Framed: 54.7 × 32.4 × 5.1 cm (21 1/2 × 12 3/4 × 2 in.)
- Culture
- Spain
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Bartolomé Bermejo likely learned his meticulous oil-painting technique by studying Netherlandish works imported into his native Spain. Colored pigments become translucent when mixed with oil, necessitating many thin layers to be built up that result in rich colors, like the green jacquard lining this saint’s vestments, and radiant light effects, as seen in his jewel-encrusted miter. This captivating realism went hand in hand with a strategy in Netherlandish art called disguised symbolism, which imbued everyday objects with sacred meaning. Here, for example, the three-horned snail that appears as a decorative detail carved into the arm of the wooden seat is also a symbol of Christ’s Resurrection.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
